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Monday, July 24, 2006

Andy's wanderings #2: Maria Cantwell was not elected to FERC

This is the second of my irregular series keeping an eye on Andy Maris over at Thurston Pundits. I did my first post without really intending to make it a series, but I guess since this is the second, let's go ahead and serialize it. This came about because I've tried commenting on his blog, but with no luck. Oh well, this is the internet and a referencing post is as good as a comment sometimes.

A few days ago Andy wrote about Maria Cantwell and her problem with making an issue over Enron. Other than it being somewhat sexist ("take a letter?"), he ignores or doesn't recognize how the federal government is broken down. Here is his post, or at least the good part:

Why is Cantwell campaigning on problems she created? Saving the voters from Enron? Maria, Enron screwed us on your watch. You’re a lot like the fireman that sets houses on fire to look like a hero for putting them out.

Senators are not members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, under whose watch "Enron screwed us." Maria is more like doing something about the fireman that sets houses on fire. This is what FERC does, if you were wondering:

[FERC] Regulates the transmission and wholesale sales of electricity in interstate commerce;